She’d set boundaries to protect herself. Maybe he needed to do thesame.
He thought about their trip. He’d wanted to prove to her that she could trust him. He’d wanted for the trip to be a test he could pass. But maybe it was a test for both of them. If she couldn’t trust him, maybe it would be safer to pullback.
He sighed, thinking about the weeks that had followed the Artmosphere show. Even if he chose to let go, would he be ableto?
Rainey made a soft whine in her sleep, a muffled, dream-laden distress call, and Jacques instinctively held her tighter. He felt her fingers grip a handful of his shirt as though she were desperate to hold onto him. And even though he knew she probably wasn’t dreaming about him, imagining her needing him like that made his heart turn over in hischest.
No,he thought with grim certainty,I don’t think I could let go even if I wantedto.
Chapter 22
Rainey opened her eyes.Even in the reassurance of the morning light, the dream still haunted her. It felt like the dream she’d had so many times in the last six years, but this one was oddlyunique.
Instead of being behind the wheel of her family’s Jeep Wrangler when her world exploded, she was driving — of all things — Jacques’s Impala. And when she turned to see John Lee the instant before glass and metal and force and speed rearranged all the atoms in her universe, her eyes didn’t land on herbrother.
Instead, it was Jacques who sat besideher.
He was looking at her. Right into her eyes. And the look in his deep brown wells was so heartbreakinglysad.
Instead of screaming like she had that awful day, Rainey wept. Time slowed to a painful crawl as the Escalade bore down on them, and she had ages and ages to feel with helpless certainty that she would lose Jacques,too.
Endless, bottomless grief rose like flood waters over her heart, her shoulders, her neck, until she opened her mouth to cry out and drowned insorrow.
A slice of sunlight now fell across her face, and even though the reassurance of Jacques’s warm, solid body surrounded her, she still could not wrest from the dream’sgrip.
During the night, she must have turned onto her left side, because now he spooned her possessively, his right arm hooked around her waist. His right leg scissored over hers. If she could turn off her brain, Rainey knew it would feelheavenly.
Maybe if she fell asleep again, she could wash away the remnants of the nightmare. Rainey closed her eyes and tried to relax her mind, but apparently sensing her wakefulness, Archie got to his feet and stretched his front legs before him, his neck reaching out as his chin ducked low before boosting his chest up high to point each leg behind him inturn.
He gave a noisy, tongue-curling yawn before he sat on his bottom right in front of her, tapped her with a paw, and began panting impatiently. Clearly, it was time to feed and walk herdog.
Rainey carefully lifted her head, glanced at her bedside clock, and discovered that it was just after nine in the morning. Regardless of her restless night and the draining dream, she’d slept quite late. The adventure of the day before must have worn Archie out too since he usually demanded to be fed no later thanseven.
She wasn’t sure how she would be able to slip out of Jacques’s embrace, and the last thing she wanted to do was wake him. If his grandfather never let him sleep in, the least Rainey wanted to give him on this trip when he gave everything and would take nothing in return was the chance to enjoy a late morning inbed.
Still, she knew if she didn’t get a move on, Archie would start grumbling. And as if on cue, he let out a doggy huff ofimpatience.
Somehow, with steady movements and more than a little breath-holding, Rainey slid out from under Jacques’s glorious limbs, dressed as quietly as possible, and took Archie out for awalk.
Ten minutes later, on her way back to the room, Rainey stopped for coffee in the hotel’s dining room. Carrying two cups of hot coffee was no small feat considering that with the leash looped over her wrist instead of in her firm grip, Archie was free to pull in any direction and attempt to greet every other hotel guest or staffmember.
She managed to make it back to their room without spilling a drop or tangling Archie’s leash around an unsuspecting bystander, and after a careful balancing maneuver, she opened the door again as quietly aspossible.
Which must have been why she walked in to see Jacques’s backside in all itsglory.
And, oh,glory.
“Oh, glory!” Rainey’s startled shout probably wasn’t the best way to let him know she’dreturned.
“Fuck!” Rainey heard his curse even as she slammed her eyes shut. How she managed to spin 180 degrees on her heel without spilling a drop of coffee, she’d neverknow.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” she pleaded. “I should haveknocked.”
“No, I’m sorry,” Jacques grumbled, his voice gruff and exceptionally deep first thing in themorning.
Rainey heard the distinct trill of a zipper, but she resisted the urge to turn around. Her eyes might have been facing the door, but she wasn’t seeing the rectangle of wood or the nearby fire escape diagram tacked thewall.
Oh, no. All her mind saw was the head-to-toe unparalleled male beauty of Jacques Gilchrist, and Rainey suspected she’d never be thesame.
